Correcting Estimation Bias in Dynamic Term Structure Models

The affine dynamic term structure model (DTSM) is the canonical empirical finance representation of the yield curve. However, the possibility that DTSM estimates may be distorted by small-sample bias has been largely ignored. We show that conventional estimates of DTSM coefficients are indeed severely biased, and this bias results in misleading estimates of expected future short-term interest rates and of long-maturity term premia. We provide a variety of bias-corrected estimates of affine DTSMs, for both maximally flexible and overidentified specifications. Our estimates imply interest rate expectations and term premia that are more plausible from a macrofinance perspective. This article has supplementary material online.     

Expectations and Risk Premia at 8:30 a.m.: Deciphering the Responses of Bond Yields to Macroeconomic Announcements

What explains the sharp movements of the yield curve upon the release of major U.S. macroeconomic announcements? To answer this question, we estimate an arbitrage-free dynamic term structure model with macroeconomic fundamentals as risk factors. We assume that the yield curve reacts to announcements primarily because of the information they contain about the fundamentals of output, inflation, and the Fed’s inflation target. We model the updating process by linking the factor shocks to announcement surprises. Fitting this process to data on yield curve movements in 20-min event windows, we find that most major announcements, especially those about the labor market, are informative largely about the output gap rather than about inflation. The resulting changes in short-rate expectations account for the bulk of observed yield movements. But adjustments in risk premia are also sizable. In partly offsetting the effects of short-rate expectations, these adjustments help to account for the well-known hump-shaped pattern of yield reactions across maturities.     

Enhancing Estimation for Interest Rate Diffusion Models With Bond Prices

We consider improving estimating parameters of diffusion processes for interest rates by incorporating information in bond prices. This is designed to improve the estimation of the drift parameters, which are known to be subject to large estimation errors. It is shown that having the bond prices together with the short rates leads to more efficient estimation of all parameters for the interest rate models. It enhances the estimation efficiency of the maximum likelihood estimation based on the interest rate dynamics alone. The combined estimation based on the bond prices and the interest rate dynamics can also provide inference to the risk premium parameter. Simulation experiments were conducted to confirm the theoretical properties of the estimators concerned. We analyze the overnight Fed fund rates together with the U.S. Treasury bond prices. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Comment: Uses of Administrative Records: A Social Security Point of View

Recent evidence indicates that using multiple forward rates sharply predicts future excess returns on U.S. Treasury Bonds, with the R²'s being around 30%. The projection coefficients in these regressions exhibit a distinct pattern that relates to the maturity of the forward rate. These dimensions of the data, in conjunction with the transition dynamics of bond yields, offer a serious challenge to term structure models. In this article we show that a regime-shifting term structure model can empirically account for these challenging data features. Alternative models, such as affine specification, fail to account for these important features. We find that regimes in the model are intimately related to bond risk premia and real business cycles.     

Estimation of the transition behaviour of term structures of interest rates

The current prices and interest rate sensitivities of interest rate derivatives depend on the stochastic behaviour of future term structures of interest rates. In this paper we present an arbitrage-free trinomial model to characterize possible changes of interest rates. This model is used to estimate the transition behaviour of term structures of interest rates in the German bond market. Research support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under the project Bu 671-2 within the Schwerpunktprogramm “Empirische Kapitalmarktforschung” is gratefully acknowledged. Comments by the editor, G. Bamberg, on an earlier version of this paper are very much appreciated.     

Premia in Forward Foreign Exchange as Unobserved Components: A Note

We reconsider the signal-extraction approach to measuring premia in the pricing of forward foreign exchange, put forward by Wolff, in which the difference between the forward rate and the associated future spot rate is modeled as an autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model for the risk premium buried in a white-noise forecast error. We point out that an ARMA model for the risk premium is not always identifiable from information on the difference between the forward rate and the future spot rate only. We present solutions to the problem of identification and show how the model for the risk premium can be estimated in a direct way, provided that the identification problem is solved. For reason of comparison, we use the series analyzed by Wolff to estimate the models for risk premia. The results confirm the earlier finding that premia in forward exchange exhibit a certain degree of persistence over time.     

Factor Stochastic Volatility in Mean Models: A GMM Approach

This paper provides a semiparametric framework for modeling multivariate conditional heteroskedasticity. We put forward latent stochastic volatility (SV) factors as capturing the commonality in the joint conditional variance matrix of asset returns. This approach is in line with common features as studied by Engle and Kozicki (1993), and it allows us to focus on identication of factors and factor loadings through first- and second-order conditional moments only. We assume that the time-varying part of risk premiums is based on constant prices of factor risks, and we consider a factor SV in mean model. Additional specification of both expectations and volatility of future volatility of factors provides conditional moment restrictions, through which the parameters of the model are all identied. These conditional moment restrictions pave the way for instrumental variables estimation and GMM inference.     

Estimating the Parameters of Stochastic Volatility Models Using Option Price Data

This article describes a maximum likelihood method for estimating the parameters of the standard square-root stochastic volatility model and a variant of the model that includes jumps in equity prices. The model is fitted to data on the S&P 500 Index and the prices of vanilla options written on the index, for the period 1990 to 2011. The method is able to estimate both the parameters of the physical measure (associated with the index) and the parameters of the risk-neutral measure (associated with the options), including the volatility and jump risk premia. The estimation is implemented using a particle filter whose efficacy is demonstrated under simulation. The computational load of this estimation method, which previously has been prohibitive, is managed by the effective use of parallel computing using graphics processing units (GPUs). The empirical results indicate that the parameters of the models are reliably estimated and consistent with values reported in previous work. In particular, both the volatility risk premium and the jump risk premium are found to be significant.     

State space modeling of multiple time series

Time series methods offer the possibility of making accurate forecasts even when the underlying structural model is unknown, by replacing the structural restrictions needed to reduce sampling error and improve forecasts with restrictions determined from the data. While there has been considerable success with relatively simple univariate time series modeling procedures, the complex interrela- tionships possible with multiple series requite more powerful techniques.Based on the insights of linear systems theory, a multivariate state space methos for both stationary and nonstationary problems is described and related to ARMA models. The states or dynamic factors of the procedure are chosen to be robust in the presence of model misspecification, in constrast to ARMA models which lack this property. In addition, by treating th emidel choice as a formal approximation problem certain new optimal properties of the procedure with respect to specification are established; in particular, it is shown that no other model of equal or smaller order fits the observed autocovariance sequence any better in the sense of a Hankel norm. Finally, in the treatment of nonstationary series, a natural decomposition into long run and short run dynamics results in easily implemented two step procedures that use characteristics of the data to identify and model trend and cycle components that correspond to cointegration and error correction models. Applications include annualo U.S. GNP and money stock growth rates, monthly California beef prices and inventories, and monthly stock prices for large retailers.     

Measurement Errors and Tests for Rationality

The traditional tests for rationality, the regression and volatility tests, have often rejected the hypothesis of rationality for survey data on expectations. It has been argued that these tests are not valid in the presence of unit roots and hence cointegration tests should be applied. The cointegration tests have often failed to reject the hypothesis of rationality. The present article argues that errors in variables affect tests of rationality. We use multiple sources of expectations to correct for the errors-in-variables bias but find that the hypothesis of rationality is rejected even after this correction. The article uses survey data on interest rates, stock prices, and exchange rates.     

A Robust Test for Weak Instruments

This article deals with the estimation of continuous-time stochastic volatility models of option pricing. We argue that option prices are much more informative about the parameters than are asset prices. This is confirmed in a Monte Carlo experiment that compares two very simple strategies based on the different information sets. Both approaches are based on indirect inference and avoid any discretization bias by simulating the continuous-time model. We assume an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process for the log of the volatility, a zero-volatility risk premium, and no leverage effect. We do not pursue asymptotic efficiency or specification issues; rather, we stick to a framework with no overidentifying restrictions and show that, given our option-pricing model, estimation based on option prices is much more precise in samples of typical size, without increasing the computational burden.     

Macroeconomic Factors Strike Back: A Bayesian Change-Point Model of Time-Varying Risk Exposures and Premia in the U.S. Cross-Section

This article proposes a Bayesian estimation framework for a typical multi-factor model with time-varying risk exposures to macroeconomic risk factors and corresponding premia to price U.S. publicly traded assets. The model assumes that risk exposures and idiosyncratic volatility follow a break-point latent process, allowing for changes at any point on time but not restricting them to change at all points. The empirical application to 40 years of U.S. data and 23 portfolios shows that the approach yields sensible results compared to previous two-step methods based on naive recursive estimation schemes, as well as a set of alternative model restrictions. A variance decomposition test shows that although most of the predictable variation comes from the market risk premium, a number of additional macroeconomic risks, including real output and inflation shocks, are significantly priced in the cross-section. A Bayes factor analysis massively favors the proposed change-point model. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Predictability of Interest Rates and Interest-Rate Portfolios

Due to the near unit-root behavior of interest rates, changes in individual interest-rate series are difficult to forecast. We propose an innovative way of applying dynamic term structure models to predict future changes in interest-rate portfolios. Instead of directly forecasting the movements based on the estimated factor dynamics, we use the dynamic term structure model as a decomposition tool and decompose each interest-rate series into two components: a persistent component captured by the dynamic factors, and a strongly mean-reverting component given by the pricing residuals of the model. With this decomposition, we form interest-rate portfolios that are first-order neutral to the persistent dynamic factors, but are exposed to the strongly mean-reverting residuals. We show that the predictability on the changes of these interest-rate portfolios is significant both statistically and economically. We explore the implications of the predictability in future interest-rate modeling.     

Reply

This article develops a new identification procedure to estimate the contemporaneous relation between monetary policy and the stock market within a vector autoregression (VAR) framework. The approach combines high-frequency data from the futures market with the VAR methodology to circumvent exclusion restrictions and achieve identification. Our analysis casts doubt on VAR models imposing a recursive structure between innovations in policy rates and stock returns. We find that a tightening in policy rates has a negative impact on stock prices and that the Federal Reserve (Fed) has responded significantly to movements in the stock market. Estimates are robust to various model specifications.     

基于状态空间模型的货币流动性与股价关系的实证研究

货币流动性与股价波动之间相互影响的关系一直是学术界争论的热点。利用变参数状态空间模型,研究货币流动性与股价之间的动态关系。研究结果表明：M2增长率／GDP增长率对股价的影响不大;M2与股价的波动从长期和短期来看均存在单向因果关系,而利率与股价波动只是短期存在单向因果关系,但相对于货币供应量而言,利率对股价的波动更为敏感。     

Tests for Parameter Instability in Regressions with 1(1) Processes

This article derives the large-sample distributions of Lagrange multiplier (LM) tests for parameter instability against several alternatives of interest in the context of cointegrated regression models. The fully modified estimator of Phillips and Hansen is extended to cover general models with stochastic and deterministic trends. The test statistics considered include the SupF test of Quandt, as well as the LM tests of Nyblom and of Nabeya and Tanaka. It is found that the asymptotic distributions depend on the nature of the regressor processes—that is, if the regressors are stochastic or deterministic trends. The distributions are noticeably different from the distributions when the data are weakly dependent. It is also found that the lack of cointegration is a special case of the alternative hypothesis considered (an unstable intercept), so the tests proposed here may also be viewed as a test of the null of cointegration against the alternative of no cointegration. The tests are applied to three data sets—an aggregate consumption function, a present value model of stock prices and dividends, and the term structure of interest rates.     

宏观经济因素对房地产价格的长短期影响

本文将购房者、房产商与中央银行纳入统一的模型当中,对房价的影响因素进行理论建模,然后拓展了传统的向量自回归模型长短期分解技术,研究了利率、通货膨胀率、汇率、土地价格以及经济增长率对房价的长期和短期影响。研究表明,利率上升对房价具有长期的负向效应,短期内会加剧房价的波动;通胀预期在长期内促使资金流入房地产行业,对房价会产生推动作用,短期内,通胀促使房地产企业加快投资速度,房屋供给增加预期引起房价下降的冲击;人民币升值在长短期内均与房价上涨存在正向作用;在当前的经济和房地产发展阶段,经济增速提高时,对房地产业的投资和投机具有一定的抑制作用;土地价格长期来看推动房价上涨,短期内对房价影响的传导较慢。     

The Variance Risk Premium: Components,Term Structures,and Stock Return Predictability

This article examines the properties of the variance risk premium (VRP). We propose a flexible asset pricing model that captures co-jumps in prices and volatility, and self-exciting jump clustering. We estimate the model on equity returns and variance swap rates at different horizons. The total VRP is negative and has a downward-sloping term structure, while its jump component displays an upward-sloping term structure. The abrupt and persistent response of the short-term jump VRP to extreme events makes this specific premium a proxy for investors’ fear of a market crash. Furthermore, the use of the VRP level and slope, and of its components, helps improve the short-run predictability of equity excess returns.     

Comment: The Future of Administrative Records in the Economic Programs of the Census Bureau

Using recently developed statistical tools for analyzing cointegrated 1(2) data, this article models money, income, prices, and interest rates in Denmark. The final model describes the dynamic adjustment to short-run changes of the process, to deviations from long-run steady states, and to several political interventions. It provides new insights about the effects of the liberalization of trade and capital in a small open European economy.     

Risk-minimizing pricing and hedging foreign currency options under regime-switching jump-diffusion models

This article mainly investigates risk-minimizing European currency option pricing and hedging strategy when the spot foreign exchange rate is driven by a Markov-modulated jump-diffusion model. We suppose the domestic and foreign money market floating interest rates, the drift, and the volatility of the exchange rate dynamics all depend on the state of the economy, which is modeled by a continuous-time hidden Markov chain. The model considered in this article will provide market practitioners with flexibility in characterizing the dynamics of the spot foreign exchange rate. Using the minimal martingale measure, we obtain a system of coupled partial-differential-integral equations satisfied by the currency option price and find the corresponding hedging strategies and the residual risk. According to simulation of currency option prices in the special case of double exponential jump-diffusion regime-switching model, we further discuss and show the effects of the parameters on the prices.